Complacency blamed for falling app use

WELLINGTON: The Government has put a dramatic dropoff in QR code scans down to an update to its NZ Covid Tracer app, but an expert suspects the bigger reason is complacency.

It comes as the Government has signalled Bluetoothenabled tracing technology could be introduced as soon as November.

The August Covid19 outbreak in Auckland prompted a surge in people using the phone app to scan QR codes for contact tracing, rising from 30,659 to 1.1 million recorded scans within a week.

By the time the city moved out of lockdown, daily numbers had reached 1.7 million, and went on to hit a peak of 2.5 million on September 5.

However, since then, numbers have been coming back down, falling to about 2 million on September 12, 1.5 million on September 20, 1.2 million on Saturday, and just more than 975,000 on Monday.

Asked about the trend yesterday, a Ministry of Health spokesman cited an update to the app on September 9 as a ‘‘significant factor’’ in the dropoff.

While the update made the app more userfriendly by removing the requirement to sign in before scanning, it also delayed the reporting of anonymised scan data to the ministry until users logged back into the app.

‘‘This results in underreporting of daily scans, which we are seeing reflected in the data,’’ the spokesman said.

‘‘While we can’t say for certain how much of the reduction is due to this technical issue, and how much is behavioural change as New Zealand moves to lower alert levels, we can confirm the underreporting issue will be resolved in the next app update.’’

However, University of Auckland technology researcher Andrew Chen believed the key reason was fewer people were bothering to check in.

‘‘While I agree that this technical issue would contribute to the decline in scan counts, I think that the majority of it would be explained by fewer people participating.’’

Dr Chen said with three weeks since the update was released, there should have should have been enough time for the data to ‘‘catch up’’ and recover from the initial effect on reporting, yet the numbers had kept falling.

With more people likely to be moving around the country over the school holidays, Dr Chen said it was especially important that people used the app as often as possible.

That was critical in being able to give contact tracing services a 14day log of personal movement.

Just as importantly, it allowed tracers to track down others who might have been exposed to the virus, and having a log also meant they could match up cases, and possible transmission, where checkins overlapped.

If successful, Bluetooth could be incorporated within the app, or more broadly, during November.

The spokesman said Bluetooth would not replace QR codes — and it would still be important for app users to scan them.

‘‘This is because Bluetooth would track persontoperson interactions while QR codes track visits to locations, both of which can be sources of transmission for Covid19, and because Bluetooth will not detect interactions with people who don’t use the app.’’ — The New Zealand Herald